Page 46 of Beware of Dog

“Will you testify if they ask you to?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t sound convincing. She knew she’d knocked his whole little sad-puppy-apology scheme completely sideways, but didn’t feel bad about it.

“Sig might find out you’re helping the police and convince you not to.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m done with Sig.”

“He might threaten you.”

Clearly, he hadn’t thought of that. His brows flew up. “Really? You think so?”

“He raped someone. You don’t think he’d threaten a friend to keep from going to jail?”

He swiped a hand through his tousled hair. She wondered how long he’d spent in front of the mirror twisting each wave so they appeared rumpled and artless. “Shit. You’re probably right.”

“You’ll need to be tough. It won’t be easy.”

“Yeah.” He shook his head, and regarded her a long moment. He wasn’t making puppy eyes anymore; instead, he assessed her, frank and with a clearly newfound respect. She’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel good to be considered in that way. “Jamie’s lucky to have you in her corner. You’re a good friend.”

Unlike his “nice person” comment from before, this compliment sounded genuine.

“Thank you,” she said, and meant it.

“Good morning, class,” Professor Nuñez called from the front of the room.

When Cass faced the board and picked up her pen, she didn’t mind that Bryce remained seated beside her.

Thirteen

Despite her busy schedule, or perhaps because of it, Raven insisted on a proper, sit-down family dinner around the dining table at least once a week. No phones, no TV, no distractions. Cass had teased her about it, called her a Boomer, to which Raven had said, “I beg your pardon?”

Toly had smoothly hidden a laugh inside his napkin.

After her last class of the day, Cass loaded up her laundry sack and took a cab to Raven and Toly’s flat in theGhostbustersbuilding.

The door opened while she was sorting through her keys, and she was surprised to find Shep on the other side. He was wearing a soft-looking black hoodie with the Lean Dogs’ running black dog silk-screened across the front in gray, subtle club branding, and he’d taken his boots off; there was something achingly vulnerable about his white-and-gray socks.

She had a physical reaction to the sight of him. A silent, small-scale detonation under her ribs that sent fizzing excitement through her veins. A Christmas-morning sort of feeling that meant she was letting her what-ifs, her little fantasies, get the best of her. She searched for a cord to pull it back with, a handbrake to slow it down, but came up empty.

But rather than the truth, which wasI’m glad to see you, she said, “What are you doing here?”

He looked like her question was absurd. “It’s Wednesday.”

“So?”

“Family dinner.” He added aduhexpression.

That warm, fizzy feeling in her torso intensified. “Aw, Sheppy. You want to be family?”

“Shut up, you wish I was family,” he muttered, and stepped back to hold the door open for her.

When she stepped inside, she caught a whiff of garlic, which meant that Toly was cooking as opposed to Raven ordering DoorDash. Shep closed and locked the door, and then took the strap of her laundry sack and drew it off her shoulder so she could unzip her boots. He handed it back to her once she’d hung up her jacket, and though operating in such silent, seamless cooperation was nothing new, it struck her as special tonight. Their initial, forced proximity from three years ago had morphed into the kind of unspoken cooperation she’d only ever glimpsed in married couples. She wasn’t even sure when it had started: she couldn’t recall having awkward moments with him; had never been at a loss for words, or unsure how close she should stand to him. She’d never hesitated to steal a sip of his drink or a bite of a PowerBar, and he didn’t hover awkwardly as though afraid to touch her.

She took it for granted. Or, rather, she had, until right now, Melissa’s assertions of being “his woman” still echoing in her mind.

“Are those clothes or rocks?” he asked as he followed her deeper into the apartment. “You’re gonna be in traction lugging that shit around.”

“Raven would say true fashion requires a sacrifice of comfort.”

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